STARPOLISH: (Laughing) Oh,
no! It sounds like a Saturday Night Live episode!
FISHER:
And they were the nicest people. You know, Ron was chitchatting
with this one girl, and he’s like, “Hey, you want to come in and
meet Kathy?” Within an hour we had 30 Lords of the Dance stuffed
in our closet during David Gray’s set, just in there partying.
And they were so nice. But I’m really sensitive to smoke, and
they’re English, they’re Scottish, and they start lighting up.
I start freaking out -- “Not cigarettes!” Then someone lit up
some skunk weed, and I was like “Noooo!” I looked and Ron and
said we have to get out of here. Then I realized that the clothes
I changed out of for the show are somewhere, my shoes are somewhere,
a $5,000 Mac computer is somewhere. So, I’m asking, “Excuse me,
can you hand me that computer?” “Oh sure, love, sorry love.” And
they’re sitting on them. And my pants are warm because they were
sitting on them. I mean nothing was stolen or bothered -- they
were just the nicest people. One girl kept hitting on Ron, then
he would bring her over to me and she was hitting on me. And Ron
goes, “That was so rude. She knew we are married. I can’t believe
that.” And I go “Ron, isn’t it profound that we were hit on all
night by Lords of the Dance?” and he goes, “What?” So I say, “Ron,
that was a Lord of the Dance troupe. Did you just think that there
was a disproportionate number of really good-looking, really fit
European people at the show?”
STARPOLISH: Just one of
those interesting nights, eh?
FISHER:
Yeah, now I know why people need privacy -- otherwise your space
gets taken over.
STARPOLISH: I do want to
touch base on some of the newer stuff that’s happening. Based
on the e-mails I received trying to schedule this interview, you
seem to be in the middle of recording?
FISHER:
We’re moving on to the recording of our second CD. A lot of that
has to do with the folding of the Farm Club. We really lost our
ground; we lost our status in terms of continuing to work on this
record.
STARPOLISH: So, what's
happening with the album that's out now? Is it getting any kind
of push?
FISHER:
Exactly, it’s just sort of floating around. It’s a real shame.
STARPOLISH: It’s such a
strong album.
FISHER:
It is a strong album. I mean, I’m proud of it. But politics are
politics and timing is everything. And to have those two things
happen -- to have the Farm Club fold, and also the transition
at Interscope with Tom Walley leaving to go to Warner…
STARPOLISH: Was he sort
of your champion there?
FISHER:
He loved the record. But wherever there’s chaos like that, there’s
not enough to nurture an artist. Basically, they never declare
it dead – it’s on life support. Good examples of that are the
Dido and the Jewel records. They were pretty much in a coma and
they got little pushes from here and there. And Dido had that
television show – I forget which one -- but that revived that
record and now it’s a great record. No record is ever dead, but
its not getting the push. We could end up working on the second
record here in the states and have the first record take off in
Europe in the next six months. That’s a possibility.
STARPOLISH: Do you deal
with the international divisions at all in terms of what they
are pushing?
FISHER:
That’s out of our hands, because they have to have the enthusiasm
to want you there. The label has to have the OK to throw the X-amount
of dollars for touring into it. You really don’t really want to
tour without a reason. You don’t want to tour without a single
supporting it, without radio play to support it. But that’s something
we’ve learned. You go into a city where you are getting radio
support and you are always going to have some kind of audience.
But areas like Texas, where we weren’t getting a lot of radio
support, people didn’t know who we were. It’s tough to go [there]
from a market where it’s like, ”My God, can you still walk down
the street without getting mobbed?” They were going to release
“I Will Love You” as a single in Europe because they felt it’s
a great song. But it never happened.
STARPOLISH: Does the CD
you’re working on have a name yet?
FISHER:
Not yet…
STARPOLISH: So are you
and Ron are doing this one on your own?
FISHER:
Yes. Our goal is to try and record 25 to 30 songs in the next
six months.
STARPOLISH: Let me know
if I’m getting too much into your business, but you just left
Interscope -- what was your deal with them? Did they have an option
on the next record, is that owed to them?
FISHER:
Yes, originally they wanted it. It was a two-album deal. [Joined
by Ron Wasserman]
 |
|
Kathy
Fisher and Ron Wasserman
|
WASSERMAN:
But after we had dinner with them – it was the meeting when they
said they wanted the album – we realized we didn’t want the same
situation to happen with the second CD. We had surveyed several
markets where True North had done well on radio and found it wasn’t
available at retail. We presented them with information about
the distribution problems but they didn’t believe that was the
problem. Plus there was the problem with some European subsidiaries
and the album not being released there despite strong radio airplay.
Refusing to release [an album] will kill your drive for the second
CD. So we started to wonder – do we really want to sign over six
months of new material that they’ll own all the rights to? So
last fall we made the decision to leave.
STARPOLISH: So you’re sort
of working on the new album by yourselves right now?
FISHER:
Yes, we’re starting to hook up again with our co-writer, John
Adaire. He had a death in the family so he was out of commission
for a while. We love writing with John because he is just a plethora
of ideas -- he and Ron just bounce off each other like magic.
And we are bringing our drummer in with some loop and track ideas.
WASSERMAN:
We’ve completed nine songs, and John’s the co-writer on six of
them.
STARPOLISH: I think Ron
said you are recording in the country?
FISHER:
Yes, we’re up in the Los Padres forest north of L.A.
|
"So we started to wonder – do we really want to sign over
six months of new material that [the label will] own all the
rights to?" |
STARPOLISH: So that’s your
place?
FISHER:
Yes, we bought a place up there because the real estate is like
800% less [expensive] than in L.A. So we have a place down there
where we rent, and we have the place up there that we bought dirt
cheap. And it’s beautiful up here and peaceful. It’s a really
nice creative environment.
STARPOLISH: And you don’t
have that studio clock ticking.
FISHER:
No, but sometimes that’s good, because sometimes I should be writing
and instead I’m thinking, “Oh, I’ll go paint the deck.” But it’s
just good to get out. As good as it is to have your business skills
and your contacts, you still need to find a way to step out of
it into a creative space, and I think that’s what we’ve created
up here.
STARPOLISH: Is there any
timeline or deadline for finishing this?
FISHER:
We wanted to have some definite song ideas out by November and
then get some musicians together to flesh out the songs. So we
are hoping to have the next CD out by June.
WASSERMAN:
But it will really depend on the next three months – whether we
sign with a major label. And I want to say that despite everything,
we’re not the least bit jaded or anti-major label. We’re still
on a first-name basis with a lot of people at Interscope and a
lot of people there have been very helpful.
FISHER:
But we will never ever, ever, ever release in the fourth quarter
again. There was just so much stacked against us: new artist,
fourth quarter, ballad. Again, because of the Internet, we were
the guinea pigs, a gamble. And I said to our A&R guys, “We should
have listened to our manager when he wanted to stop San Diego
from playing “I Will Love You.” And he was like, “Yeah, but if
it had gone, we would have been geniuses!”
STARPOLISH: What’s the
Spinal Tap line --it’s a fine line between stupidity and genius?
Is there anything you would do hugely different? And having used
the Internet successfully, are you going to use it differently
this time?
FISHER:
Let me put it this way. The way I think artists should treat fans…
I admire country artists; I really feel they nurture their relationships
with their fans. Nationally, they have a fan day, and they’re
not into putting on airs. They don’t make it seems like being
aloof is cool. I don’t believe in that. I believe in direct contact
with your audience, and that’s where I think the Internet is an
invaluable tool, to perpetuate that, to keep that going, to keep
us approachable. In that regard, it helps us to continue to be
the personable band with the heart. We’ll write you back --it’s
not our assistant. If I don’t write you back, I don’t write you
back. If I’m busy it’s one thing, and if I am lazy it’s one thing,
but I won’t pass it off to someone who pretends they are me.
STARPOLISH: So this way
you’ll be personally ignored by Kathy instead of her assistant
(laughing).
FISHER:
I’ll be straight up -- sometimes I am so fucking sick of being
on the computer and I’ll have 100 emails -- and I won’t answer
them. Then I’ll take a day and I’ll answer 30 in a day.
STARPOLISH: Is [the Internet]
still beneficial for drawing people to live shows for you guys?
FISHER:
Absolutely, because here and there you’ll have a promoter fuck
up and you’ll have no posters up.
STARPOLISH: Do you use
street teams?
FISHER:
Do you mean Internet street teams?
STARPOLISH: Both on the
Internet, or to put up posters around town and in clubs – sort
of guerrilla marketing teams.
FISHER:
Yes and no. We had an e-team which was kind of mismanaged because
the company who took it over was a little too slick. We started
out with our fans being very down to earth, and we’d say, “Hey,
if you want to bootleg this song get the attention, you be the
one person to do that for two weeks before the song was released
just to get the energy up. You have people who are willing to
that for you. The company that came and took over e-team was a
little corporate about it. And so we would get people who were
used to our approach going, “What’s this formal letter I got that’s
making me feel like a number?” We kind of messed up there. We
picked the wrong e-team sponsor.
STARPOLISH: So how did the
tour with Duncan Sheik go?
FISHER:
Balls were totally dropped on the tour in terms of posters and
street teams for that. It was very depressing showing up to the
club and seeing “Duncan Sheik and Special Guest” -- you’re like,
“Why are there no Fisher posters?” But you know, that’s a label
thing, too. It’s that shit you have to watch like a hawk. You
always have to think of it as a corporation that we merged with,
and there are going to be people at that corporation who do their
jobs phenomenonally [well] and those who just don’t give a shit
-- just like any other job, whether you are a doctor, a lawyer
or a rock star. Ron and I had the greatest time talking to my
uncle who is a CEO at GE, and we compared notes. If you come into
a managerial position in a business and you turn a company around
too fast, you put yourself out of a job. If you come in and increase
productivity 200% in the first two years, then the next two years
you have to increase it 400%. You can’t live up to that. And we
were like “God, that’s just like Eminem.” ‘Cause his first album
sold 13 million and the second was six million and it’s considered
a failure. He sold six million fucking records…it’s not a failure!
But you create expectations you cannot match.
STARPOLISH: Especially working
for a public company, where they measure success quarter by quarter.
FISHER:
And so do labels. And then one of the employees at the corporation
forgot to hang posters. So what do you do?
STARPOLISH: Well, he’s probably
just enjoying his job. He’s not turning it around – he’s on the
10-year plan. And unfortunately, it’s built on your back.
FISHER:
So now we go straight to the e-teamers in the area ourselves --
we go straight to Joe Smith in Nevada and ask him if we can send
him 30 flats to for the show.
STARPOLISH: And think--
if you are this guy and a fan of the band, how cool is it that
Kathy Fisher calls you up? I mean just in terms of a motivating
factor, there are so many people who don’t have the talent…
FISHER:
But love music…
STARPOLISH: And who want
to be involved. For every person who creates music, there have
to be a bunch that enjoy listening to it, and empowering those
people is pretty cool. This is probably a guy who will do anything.
I’m curious to see how that works out.
|
"I admire country artists; I really feel they nurture their
relationships with their fans." |
FISHER:
There’s just so much to learn and implement. And after the next
album there will be so much to learn and implement. We’re always
going to be fucking up. But it’s fucking up on one level to that
you can go on to another level.
STARPOLISH: You’re learning…
FISHER:
And who knows what our peak level is going to be. Are we going
to sell a million albums ever? I don’t know. But if it ever gets
to the point where we can sell 500,000, it’s still fantastic.
STARPOLISH: Depending on
your deal, actually. There are bands that have contracts where
they don’t break even on 500,000…
FISHER:
You know what, honey? I don’t even think in terms of dollars with
the deal. Ron and I know that there’s more money in television
than anything. Every now and then Ron will crank out an idea for
a children’s show, and I do as many commercials as I can a year.
STARPOLISH: So are you
doing a lot of that kind of stuff?
FISHER:
Yes. And those commercial spots – my Chrysler, Verizon, and Hyundai
spots -- are what buys the house, not the record deal. You know,
that is so foreign to me, the idea of making money selling records.
STARPOLISH: And that’s
the dream, really…
FISHER:
Actually, the dream is reaching people with music. And I’ve been
programmed that while you’re doing it, you always have to have
something to pay the bills. So the breaking even -- I know it’s
there and we always try to keep our budgets down so that it’s
not a situation where there’s never a chance of recouping. We
did all the vocals at the house on the last record so that we
weren’t always down in L.A. in a studio burning up money. And
if I was having a bad throat day or a bad mood day, we weren’t
just burning up money. We did all the vocals up here, and we did
all the guitar overdubs up here. So we are not about, “Oh, whatever,
if we recoup, we recoup.” We keep the budgets reasonable. If fact,
I think we want to spend even less on this next record. We spent
a lot mixing and remastering and all that stuff, and Ron’s saying,
“I’m not that bad – fuck it, I’ll remix the next record.” Not
that we don’t like Don, but it’s a lot of money.
For the latest information about Fisher, check out the band’s
website at http://www.fishertheband.com
|
